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I have found old chemistry textbooks like Walter Moore's Physical Chemistry and Morrison&Boyd's Organic Chemistry to be really good source of information, as good as actual reference textbooks.

What other books do you recommend, regardless the area, that still useful nowadays despite its age?

The reason I ask this is because the language used by these authors seems to be different from today, and I find it to be a pleasant reading.

Macro G.
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    If the books were written in the 1960's then they should be ok; the basic science hasn't changed so these books should still be good and topics such as chemical bonding in transition metals were well developed by then. Buy clearly topics such as lasers, atomic force/scanning tunnelling microscopes and lots about DNA etc. had not been developed or discovered, and probably also several synthetic methods. NMR/FTIR & optical spectroscopy/mass spectrometry methods have greatly developed since then also. – porphyrin May 02 '18 at 07:09

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Charles E. Mortimer's Chemistry book was very good for our General Chemistry I & II courses. It has detailed Molecular Orbital diagrams, coordination chemistry information, sufficient examples of electrochemical cells and also a good text of nuclear chemistry. It does not have too many colorful images and pages so it is easier to focus on the knowledge.

In general, old books are only for general chemistry and history of chemistry research etc. When one starts to delve into things, it is dangerous not to use the most up-to-date textbook.

Güray Hatipoğlu
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General Chemistry by Linus Pauling, there are several additions. It is better than a couple modern college texts that I have seen.

blacksmith37
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